Stanley Feinbaum wrote an interesting article about why he’s not interested in buying an iPhone. A humorous look at some of the ‘features’ of Apple’s new cell phone.
Cingular only. This makes as much sense as selling computers that can only access the internet through AOL.
Verizon, the 2nd largest U.S. cell phone dealer, had the chance to be Steve Jobs’ new best friend, but passed. Why would such a stable, prospering company even hesitate when presented with one of Apple’s sure-to-be gold nuggets? Verizon likes to play fair, and Apple likes to be in control.
Jobs would let the iPhone be sold in Apple stores, and Verizon stores, but not in Verizon partnership stores such as Wal-Mart or Best Buy. This deal might sour Verizon’s other partners and make future business partnerships seem stale.
If a technical issue comes up with your iPhone, who would you call? Apple stores are few and far between, whereas distributors of Verizon or Cingular are nearly everywhere. Convenience itself would reason that one might hop on over to their local cell phone distributor and ask them a question about repairs. This is not what Apple wants, and it turned Verizon off even more. Apple wanted the sole discision over whether to replace or repair the phone.
“They would have been stepping in between us and our customers to the point where we would have almost had to take a back seat … on hardware and service support,” Jim Gerace, Verizon Vice President said.
With Verizon saying to Apple “No Thanks,” Steve Jobs and his cronies ran into the waiting arms of Cingular for an exclusive U.S. deal.
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iPhoneMatters.com recently had an interesting poll about why one would opt out of getting an iPhone.
The choices were:
…and the results were:
It would appear that most percieve the iPhone’s price to be it’s biggest downfall. Another thing of note is that very few - perhaps only the business types - would say they wouldn’t get an iPhone because it lacks a real keyboard or the ability to use with a real keyboard. As always, there’s lots of angst for Cingular.
What drives your opinion? Will you be getting one? Why? Why not?
Many people, myself included, have been worrying about the inescapable attachment to a sub-par GSM provider. In the US, of course, this provider has been named as Cingular, but for the rest of the world, it has not been decided yet.
This begs the question: Can I buy an iPhone and NOT have to use it as a cell phone? In other words, do I need a cell phone providers’ SIM card to make it function, or can I just use the iPhone as a standalone iPod, WiFi internet browser, photo viewer, 2 Mega pixel camera, calendar, etc.? The simple answer is: probably not.
In a recent article about frequently asked iPhone questions, David Pogue for the New York Times writes concerning the issue:
“Will the iPhone work without a SIM card installed? i.e., will it be able to surf the web/email?” –Very doubtful.
This also lends itself to another question: If the iPhone needs to be tied to a service provider to be purchased, what happens when the service contract is up? Obviously the contract would be renewable, but what if one chose not to renew for a couple of months? Would it still function as normal just without phone capabilities.
All these questions surely in time will be answered by Apple, who tout their new iPhone as the reinvention of the cell phone. If it truly is as good as they say, they surely have looked into all these issues and are making headway to resolve them before their launch in June.
In this recent post from The Consumerist, they outline how to cancel your current Cingular contract without those pesky cancellation fees.
If you are currently on a plan with Cingular, and want to get an iPhone when it comes out in June, you may wish to use this cancellation trick in order not to overlap any remaining contract when you want to get the iPhone. The details of the iPhone Cingular contract have not been released yet, but it is safe to assume that any cell phone plan you may have had previously, will not be transferrable.
If you have a cell phone contract that reaches beyond June from a different service provider, you may be up the river without a paddle on this one. Current Cingular customers may have an advantage and an opportunity.
Plan ahead, there’s only 5 months to go before the iPhone is released!
